Stuck mobile home trailers cause backups on county roads
A routine mobile home transportation led to traffic backups and frustration for motorists in Saxonburg and Jefferson Township on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 30.
A pair of heavy vehicles transporting mobile homes through Butler County found themselves stuck at the corner of Pittsburgh and West Main streets.
According to eyewitnesses, one vehicle was unable to make a tight turn while transporting its heavy cargo, trapping another mobile home transport that was trailing it.
“One got halfway into the turn onto Main Street and couldn't make the turn, so he had to back up,” said local real estate agent Nancy Zacherl. “The other one was behind him and never even tried. He just backed up. So all the traffic that was stopped had to back way up to let them back up and turn.”
Not long after, a separate incident involving mobile home haulers occurred at the intersection of Alwine and Riemer roads in Jefferson Township, where another mobile home transport became stuck while making a turn. It is unclear whether or not this is part of the same pair of transports that caused the backup in Saxonburg.
Fred Caesar, curator of the Saxonburg Museum, was at the borough’s post office when he saw the first incident unfold.
“They were wide. They took over both lanes,” Caesar said. “You could have never turned there.”
The first incident required intervention from both the Saxonburg Fire Police and the Saxonburg Police Department to guide the vehicles out of their predicament. According to Caesar, one truck almost knocked over a lamppost in the attempt.
“The one white truck that had turned the corner … it was stuck. It couldn't go anywhere. It could not go forward. It would have taken down the street sign,” Caesar said. “It did get backed up, but it was very close to knocking over a lamp post as well.”
At least one of the vehicles belongs to MRC Transportation, a company based in Tazewell, Tenn. which specializes in transporting mobile homes. The company could not be reached for comment.
Multiple eyewitnesses expressed bewilderment at how the mobile homes even ended up in Saxonburg in the first place.
“There is no way that (truck) was going to go up West Main Street. There was just no way,” Caesar said.
“They must not have had their route planned, because trucks aren’t even allowed on Main Street,” Zacherl said.
The mobile homes were bound for, and eventually arrived at, Bernie’s Mobile Home Park in Cabot, according to a resident of that neighborhood who asked not to be named.
